Fresh Market coming to Glen Ellyn

I have read that Fresh Market is coming to Glen Ellyn. Taking a place vacated by Packey Webb. This is good for the Wheaton-Glen Ellyn community. We will have Trader Joe's, Fresh Market, Mariano's, and Bende's along the Roosevelt Rd. corridor. This is in addition to other Jewel, Dominicks, Whole Foods, Aldi, Ultra, and other stores all within a few miles. I am wondering how this will impact the other stores but also wonder about the fact that the Fresh Market will be located a miles or two from the new Mariano's. Its nice to have choices but someone is going to have to step up their game. Also people going to Target now too for groceries.

Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,W. Shakespeare

Hi- I have been to the Fresh Market in Wilmette a few times, and yes the store is nice, but they are just too expensive for me, and they don't have an extensive bulk food section like WF does. I visit WF about once a month. and I mostly purchase things from their bulk section, including spices, yogurt, Cedar's Hummus when it is on sale, some cheese, Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips, and their store brand peanut butter. I also buy what is on sale, and for which I have a coupon, such as Muir Glen canned tomatoes and Arrowhead Mills and King Arthur flour.

WF seems to be the only place that has Guiltless Gourmet now, and every few months they put it on sale for $2 a bag.

I am surprised that Fresh Market is still open in Eden's Plaza. It is in a kind of an out of the way location. It is right off the Edens I guess, for those people that want to stop there on their way come from work though. I think that a lot of their sales are in the deli department, for those people who don't like to cook. WF is much more convenient for me. Hope this helps, Nancy

There is a Fresh Market in Geneva that has been open for 5 years or so. We have only gone a few times because we saw nothing worthy of the effort that we couldn't get from someplace easier to get to and less expensive. We looked at some deli items and spotted a number of things that did not look fresh made. There are just way too many options of places to go that are better located.

I stop by the Wilmette store on occasion. It is not meant to be a full service grocery and I guess the closest equivalent would be a mini Whole Foods without the emphasis on organics. I'd say they're about WF quality at lower prices. They do have decent prices on weekly sale items, although the sales are limited. Also, since they are a Southern chain, they carry some items, like White Lily flour that you don't easily find in other stores. I've never tried the prepared foods, and generally don't buy prepared foods anywhere

Maybe it's just nostalgia kicking in, but I would love to have a Fresh Market that is convenient to me! I used to live in Greensboro, NC, and that is where the first stores opened up back in the '80s. It was a treasure trove of delights and delicacies that you otherwise couldn't find around there at the time.

"When I'm born I'm a Tar Heel bred, and when I die I'm a Tar Heel dead."

I would never do all of my shopping there but if you hunt around and watch for sales some of their meat can be reasonable for the quality, that is to say it's a bit pricy but I think you get a good product. The cheese and wine shop is about on par with WF, but I think WF is better for price, selction, and quality of produce.

One of the biggest problems with Fresh Market is that you can't do a complete grocery-shopping trip, meaning they don't carry things like TP, paper towels, detergent, etc. If you need giant shrimp, a standing rib roast cut to order, a bottle of wine, and some overpriced out-of-season fruit, you're golden, but if you need zippy bags or a box of tissues, forget it - meaning you need to make an additional trip.

Also, I gave up on it after multiple instances of finding mis-marked or unmarked items, and it taking an Act of God to find someone willing to give me a price on the item. After the last instance, in which a clerk tried to charge me a made-up price for an item based on an unrelated product (!), I was so miffed that I wrote a letter about their slipshod procedures to Lisa Madigan's office, and never went back. Too many other places on the North Shore to shop that have far better business practices (and local ownership, like The Grand and Treasure Island.

Hi- At least at WF their customer service is outstanding. When I am in the produce section, and I have a question, there is always somebody working in the department there to help me. Half the time when you go to Dominick's or Jewel, there is nobody working in the produce section.

I also have good luck getting assistance in the dairy/frozen assistance. If I am looking for something in the dairy department, and I notice it is out, I can usually find somebody to either tell me that they are out, but they are expecting another shipment tomorrow, or to go back to the cooler, and see if they can find what I am looking for. At Dominick's especially I can never find anybody working in the dairy department to ask a question.

I don't understand why fresh market could not just scan the item to see how much it was. Wasn't it in their computer? I occasionally do have problems at WF, where there is no shelf tag, and so I have no idea how much it is. I suppose that I could go to CS and have it scanned. I use Jewels price scanners on a regular basis, and I wish all the other grocery stores would install them, and especially Dominick's.

I used to take somebody shopping at the Treasure Island in Wilmette, and most of the people that work there are super nice, and will go out of their way to help you. There is one person in the produce section that I could do without though if he is still there. I think he is in charge of produce. TI has really reasonably priced Bell and Evans chicken. Thanks, Nancy

Unfortunately, in the wild wilderness of central Illinois, Fresh Market is the only specialty food market that is in our town. We have 2 natural food stores, but Fresh Market prices look almost reasonable next to the prices in those independent natural food stores. I have had nothing but good customer service though at my store. I go shopping there about once every two weeks for coffee and organic butter and eggs, which seem to be pretty reasonable there compared to other places in town. I wish we had a trader joes or a whole foods down here. But then I would probably not get up to Chicago as much!

Somebody posted on one of the other boards that I visit, that Fresh Market has b/s chicken breast on sale every Tuesday during the month of February for $2.99 a pound. Does anybody have any idea if their chicken is free range? This person loves their chicken. Thanks, Nancy

Sad to see the one in Normal closing, although the market has seen some stiff competition with Hy-Vee opening a pretty good store in the last couple of years, Green Top Grocery (although they are having money issues) opening in Bloomington, and Fresh Thyme in Bloomington.

I'm not surprised, though. Bloomington-Normal just doesn't seem to support much beyond chain restaurants and generic supermarkets. The Garlic Press is much changed (I think for the worse, but they know their books better than I). World Gourmet Food closed a while ago....

I'm not surprised that they are closing the one in Glen Ellyn. It was a good concept but unless they were offering something special, there was no point in going there. The something special could have been deli, take out meals, prepared stuff, but when I looked at what they had, it looked forlorn and like it was sitting there for hours drying up. The prices of other things they had was high and most of what they carried could be gotten at regular stores, Whole Foods or Amazon.

Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,W. Shakespeare

I am surprised that they are closing Lincolnshire and not Lake Forest.....I never see anyone in the Lake Forest store and though I have never been inside, the parking lot in Lincolnshire always seems reasonably crowded.